From: The Villages Group <villagesgroup1@gmail.com>
Date: 18 October 2023 at 06:32:55 BST
To: Ehud Krinis <ksehud@gmail.com>
Subject: A Visit in a-Tuwani and Susya - 17.10



In certain respects, our visit today (Tuesday, October 17) resembled our usual weekly visits in the South Hebron Hills. It was on Tuesday, the day we normally come there. The places we visited today – a-Tuwani and Susya – are the two villages we have been connected with for the longest time, over 20 years. The families we visited in these communities are ones with whom we have had a long history. But from every respect, our visit today was not a usual one. The state of the communities in a-Tuwani and Susya, like that of the other communities in south of Mt. Hebron, has never been worse and more perilous. For our part, we try to visit our friends there as much as we can, instead of just once a week. We do not know what lies in store and how long we will still be able to visit them, and whether some time from now anyone will be left there to visit.

 

The way from the a-Tuwani junction to Yatta is now blocked only from the side leading to Yatta, which enabled us to enter the village directly from the main road. As soon as we came, we turned off to visit the family of Zakariya – the young man who was shot in the belly by a settler at immediate range last Friday. Zakariya’s father came back this morning after spending four days at the side of his son in the Yatta hospital. We joined him and two other important members of the community who sat with him in the family yard. We heard encouraging news about the improvement in his son’s condition, a result of a successful operation connecting a central vein in his abdomen that was hurt by the settler’s fire. This was an opportunity to see Zakariya’s wife as well, his two daughters – 5- and 3-years-old, and the twins – a son and a daughter – born four months ago.  

 

The a-Tuwani villagers have been living for over 20 years in close proximity to Havat Maon, one of the more extreme settlements. This life so near to this settlement and settlers in general has brought home important insight that is absent from the minds of most Israelis:  the source of evil and the main reason for the worsening condition of both Palestinians and Israelis lies in the empowerment of the settlers, and the management and leadership positions they have attained inside the State of Israel. Among the families of a-Tuwani, the one family that experiences its proximity to Havat Maon most intensely is the one whose home is situated next to the JNF (Jewish National Fund) forest, most of whose trees have already been cut down in order to gradually enlarge Havat Maon. When we visited this family today, we were relieved to hear that the family’s elderly matriarch has moved and is living with a son outside the village, because of her back trouble. Still, we could not refrain from expressing to our friend, member of this family, our concern for the fate of the small children of the family during these harsh and cruel times. It is a central dilemma facing many families that live in the ‘line of fire’ of the settlers and occupation forces.

 

In a-Tuwani we also visited the home of one of the prominent leaders of the village, who was attacked by colonists in his fields a few months ago – the settlers fractured his arms while he tried to defend himself. On the nearby hill, several dozen meters from that house, we noticed a soldier or settler (their differences have blurred almost completely these days) patrolling and watching us from above. Some of the sons and daughters of this man are leading figures of the village’s younger generation, and now bear the ongoing and multi-generational burden of resisting occupation and expropriation.

 

At the center of a-Tuwani we met some of our colleagues, Israeli and international volunteers staying in the village. While we handed out basic food stuffs to the villagers today as well, our colleagues began to distribute fire extinguishers to families in a-Tuwani and other places. The burning of homes, sheds and pens has become a main means used by settlers to expel villagers from their Palestinian communities in the West Bank’s Area C, so this was the good reason for such distribution.

 

These volunteers took us with them to visit Palestinian Susya. The villagers now experience the shock of siege and disconnection that have landed on them in full force, since yesterday, when an army bulldozer blocked all possible exit points leading from their houses to the road (see the report of our previous visit to Susya).

Since we could not park next the dwellings, and did not want to leave our vehicle at the side of the road, we had to take advantage of our friends’ good services, giving us a ride to Susya and driving us afterwards back to a-Tuwani where we had left our car. We walked across the blocked passages and visited several families. Our visit to Susya was short but significant. As one of our besieged Palestinian friends said, “Only when you are really suffocating, do you realize who your good friends are.”

 

Ehud and Erella on behalf of the Villages Group